The government will launch 5G services in India soon, and the plan is to cover the entire nation in two years, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw has said.
Though the National National Broadband Mission earlier tweeted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will roll out the 5G services at the India Mobile Congress held in the first week of October, it is still unconfirmed. The India Mobile Congress is a major event and is tagged as Asia's largest technology exhibition.
Last month, the government issued spectrum allocation letters to telecom service providers instructing them to prepare for the roll-out, reported ANI News.
The launch would be done in a phased manner, and in the first phase, only 13 selected cities can avail of 5G services. These include Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Gandhinagar, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Jamnagar, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, and Pune.
The rolling out of the 5G service is expected to give the Indian economy a major boost. According to a report by a global industry body representing mobile network operators, the growth is pegged at Rs 36.4 trillion ($455 billion) between 2023 and 2040. The service will also bring more development in remote data monitoring in sectors like mining, warehousing, telemedicine and manufacturing.
In his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Modi mentioned the impact of 5G and how it would offer 10 times faster speeds. He had stressed that the service would reach even the remotest part of the country.
The 5G spectrum auction held in August had seen Reliance Jio emerging as the largest spender, acquiring 24,740 MHz of 5G airwaves. Jio spent Rs 88,078 crore, amounting to 59 per cent in the government kitty. Besides Jio, Adani Group, Bharati Airtel and Vodafone Idea too participated in the auction. In total, the bid earned the government a record amount of Rs 1.5 lakh crore.
